code: def imread_sitk(filename):
      """SimpleITK requires two function calls to retrieve a numpy array."""
      sitk = require_module("SimpleITK")
      try:
          simg = sitk.ReadImage(filename)
      except RuntimeError:
          raise IOError(filename)
      img = sitk.GetArrayFromImage(simg)
      if simg.GetDimension() > 2:
          img = img.transpose()
      return image2nibabel(img, affine=make_affine_from_sitk(simg))
  
file_path: NiftyNet/niftynet/io/image_loader.py
imports: from collections import OrderedDict
  import nibabel
  import numpy
  import tensorflow
  from niftynet.utilities.util_import import require_module
label_desc: Use image node_id 7 for calling a global function with example usage: imread_sitk(filename) and returns: image2nibabel